


Disarmed

by tymedfire



Series: As Seen By Matt Holt [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: I'm excited for this, Team as Family, as in a lot of chapters, definitely my longest thing, just matt observing things, this is gonna be pretty long
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 14:55:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12559920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tymedfire/pseuds/tymedfire





	Disarmed

When going into the lounge on the castleship, Matt always expected a certain degree of chaos. Oftentimes, Matt would walk in on some type of team bonding exercise that had gone wrong (or right, depending on who you asked) and ended with Lance being chased and wrestled down by Katie, all the while throwing insults at Keith. Hunk was sometimes a part of it, mostly to come to Lance’s rescue, but Shiro usually watched from the sidelines, a longsuffering or amused look on his face. That was often, but sometimes Matt would walk in to find all the paladins coexisting at least semi-harmoniously, doing their own projects or watching one of Katie’s illegally downloaded movies.

So, you see, there was a spectrum. Matt knew what to expect when entering the lounge, so he wasn’t that surprised to see all paladins and the two Alteans sitting and laughing together. He was glad for it, especially when he saw Katie grinning, wide and bright. 

What he wasn’t prepared for was the sight of Shiro with only one arm.

Matt knew that Shiro lost his arm, that the one he used to nearly squeeze the life out of him when they first saw each other again was Galra. He knew that. He knew it wasn’t real, wasn’t flesh and blood. He just… never fully processed that if the arm were to come off, there would be _nothing there_. 

He stares. Matt knows he’s staring, knows he should stop, knows it’s rude and will hurt Shiro’s feelings if he sees, but he can’t help it. It’s empty. Shiro’s Galra arm is in Katie’s lap. She and Hunk are looking over it, occasionally prodding it with the various tools that are spread around them. And Shiro looks… much more comfortable than Matt expected. He’s smiling, his flesh and blood (only) arm slung around Lance’s shoulders as he keeps the younger boy in a headlock. His right sleeve lays limply at his side. 

Matt can’t breathe. His hands are clenched so hard into fists that he’s sure he’s drawing blood, but he can’t move. His vision is blurring and suddenly he sees not the blue lights of the castle, but the purple of a Galra ship. He hears the screams down the hall of all the people the druids are experimenting on, of _Shiro_. He can’t breathe. He wants to scream, it’s gone, he’s gone, gone, gone, gone-

“Matt! Come sit down!”

He jerks violently out of the flashback, sucking in deep breaths. He can breathe. Slowly, much slower than he wants, his vision returns to normal. Katie is beckoning him over enthusiastically. 

“Come look at the mechanics in the joint here, I have an idea…” Katie keeps talking, flinging her hands around as she explains her theory, but Matt can’t pay attention to her. He’s too busy still staring at Shiro, trying to see if he noticed what had just happened. Shiro makes eye contact with him and smiles before getting his attention dragged away by Lance again. He didn’t notice, but…

Keith did. He’s watching Matt like a hawk, and when they make eye contact Keith squints his eyes for a second before taking a deliberately slow deep breath. Matt unconsciously does the same, and for a few seconds they’re just staring at each other and breathing. Matt’s still racing heart slows down and he sends a grateful smile the kids way. He gets a nearly imperceptible nod in response before Keith resumes watching Shiro and Lance, occasionally speaking when Lance sends some type of banter his way. 

Keith is watching Shiro just as closely as Matt was, and Matt realizes that Katie and Hunk both glance at Shiro every minute or so. Matt looks at Shiro a little closer, and he realizes.

Shiro is not nearly as comfortable as he appears. Matt suddenly notices the tenseness of his friend’s shoulders and the slight tremble of his hand. Lance sees this too, apparently, because the next second Shiro’s hand is in Lances and an arm wrestle challenge has been issued. Lance smirks at Shiro and urges him on until Shiro sighs and puts his elbow on the couch between them. Lance cheers and boasts about how badly he’s about to smoak Shiro and Matt is suddenly so grateful to him, too, as he realizes what the kid has been doing. With each word Shiro seems to be relaxing, and Matt can imagine that they’ve been at this for at least an hour. Lance is distracting Shiro, constantly moving and talking and forcing Shiro to react to him. Matt smiles.

When he turns back to Katie, she’s watching him closely, too. It seems Keith wasn’t the only one who noticed his moment when he entered the room. He thinks Katie’s beckoning him over had been much more intentional than he realized. 

Matt pulls his sister in for a tight hug, which she immediately responds to. “Okay?” She asks, her face pressed into his shoulder. Matt smiles and presses a kiss to her hair.

“Yeah. I’m good now.” She squeezes him harder for a second then reluctantly lets him go, picking up Shiro’s arm again. There’s a particularly loud shout from Lance as Shiro forces his arm back into the couch. Keith snickers, and Lance yells defensively about him doing any better against “Mr. Muscle”. Keith, of course, accepts the challenge immediately and takes Lance’s place. For the next few minutes Lance cheers Shiro on enthusiastically, and Matt can see Shiro’s smile grow when Keith holds his own and Lance cheers even louder.

These kids really are amazing.


End file.
